SCAD Students Encourage Savannah to "Shop Local"

Call it a senior project that lasted beyond graduation. A group of historic preservation students from Savannah College of Art and Design challenged their city to “shop local” on Labor Day weekend.

"In the spring we spent a quarter studying the benefits of shopping local, and we decided to stick around in the summer and take the knowledge and do something with it," says Chad Purkey, one of the six students who went door-to-door passing out postcards about the benefits of shopping at local stores.

For the class taught by Jeanne Lambin, former program officer at the National Trust’s Midwest Office, students devised a slogan ("It makes cents"), engaged the media, and launched a website with a survey and blog about Savannah's favorite shops.

"We developed a lot of partnerships with different organizations in town who are really excited about the project," Chad says. "Local businesses help preserve local identity and character. We thought that was really important for Savannah because it’s this quirky place that has a lot of unique flavor. … We looked at the positives of local businesses; we never talked about the negatives of chain stores."

The PreservationNation blog features stories, news, and notes from the National Trust for Historic Preservation as well as the wider preservation movement. Have a great story to share? Email us! And visit PreservationNation.org to learn more about people saving places.

The Fine Print

While the writers of the PreservationNation blog are on staff at the National Trust for Historic Preservation or affiliated organizations, their posts are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.